Doc Lawrence welcomes travelers to Down South Today, a blog and podcast journey to the higher life. Destinations include food, arts, wines/cocktails, tailgating, books, music and more.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

ATLANTA CELTIC CHRISTMAS

SEASON OF SONG AND DANCE

By Doc Lawrence

Celtic and Appalachian traditions, high spirits and mystical song share a Christmas legacy this time of year, confirming the importance of cultural heritage.Deep in the Appalachian Mountains the ancient hymns and Christmas songs are brushed off for festivals, celebrations and religious services.

And you can find the song and dance of the season here in Atlanta.

This year marks the 19th annual Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert which takes place on Dec. 17 at Agnes Scott College’s Presser Hall. Hosting the concert is a good friend, James Flannery, the Winship Professor of the Arts and Humanities at Emory University. An internationally renowned Irish tenor and theater producer, Flannery is a scholar of W.B. Yeats and directs the W.B. Yeats Foundation, which produces the concert. Flannery long ago reintroduced audiences to the Celtic-Appalachian connections where they are most recognizable in music, dance, hospitality and reverence for things sacred. A casual examination of dance forms popular in Southern mountain communities today-buck, clogging or flat-foot-manifests similarities with Irish step-dancing, recalling many scenes from “Riverdance.”

According to Flannery, “the principal appeal of the concert to people of all ages and religious affiliations lies in the way it expresses the quest for spiritual renewal at the heart of the Christmas season.”

Featured performers include renowned Irish folk singer Moya Brennan and her ensemble; American banjoist and Grammy-Award winner Alison Brown; storyteller and fiddler Joe Craven; Irish guitarist and songwriter John Doyle; and the Emory Celtic Chorus, who will sing “Quis Est Deus?” (“Who Is God?”), a choral piece based on a seventh-century Irish poem in which a fairy questions St. Patrick about the nature of the Christian God he

is bringing to Ireland. Other performers include three Grammy winners: “First Lady of Celtic Song” Moya Brennan; Celtic and bluegrass banjo virtuoso Alison Brown; and “Riverdance” composer Bill Whelan with a stunning choral setting of a seventh-century Irish prayer poem.

Also featured are the soulful harmonies of Rising Appalachia, a dynamic duo winning applause with their innovative interpretations of traditional Southern music. Other performers include madcap percussionist Joe Craven, renowned Irish balladeer John Doyle, uillean piper John Maschinot, The Buddy O’Reilly Band, the Rosin Sisters and other top traditional musicians of the Southeast. The vital Southeastern Celtic music scene will be represented in both the Irish tradition and in the Scottish, as well as many forms of Appalachian-style music with its close connections to the Celtic lands.

“People tell us that they return to the Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert year after year because they find a sense of community,” says Flannery. “People feel free to join in with laughter, clapping hands, even shouts of encouragement as fiddlers and dancers take flight. In a real sense, at the Celtic Christmas Concert, the performers onstage and the members of the audience become a family, joined by the wonder and joy of all that we share together.”